[soc.religion.christian] Hating one's parents

dg@lakart.uucp (David Goodenough) (09/23/89)

[David was commenting on 
> Luke 14:26 "If any man come to me and hate [1] not his father and
> mother and wife and children and ....."
> Matt 15:4 "..... Honour thy father and mother ....."
...
> [1] I don't know anything of the original Greek, but I'd guess there
> ought to be a better word here - it's not really hate, more a case of
> "if it ever comes to a choice between Christ and your Father, Christ
> has to come first"
I responded that the Greek word really is hate --clh]

Which promptly blew my socks off. I had added my footnote on the basis
of the translation of that same part in Matthew, which says more what
I said in my footnote. I am humbled, surprised, and a little confused.
Can you provide any insight to try to clear my confusion, for the
Matthew translation makes more sense to me, I find it hard to believe
that I should hate my Father for no reason. I will hate him if he
attempts to forbid me to go to church (this makes interesting insight
into the JW issue :-/ ), but since he hasn't, I see no reason at all to
hate him.

			Yours,
-- 
	dg@lakart.UUCP - David Goodenough		+---+
						IHS	| +-+-+
	....... !harvard!xait!lakart!dg			+-+-+ |
AKA:	dg%lakart.uucp@xait.xerox.com			  +---+

[I didn't mean to humiliate you.  In fact I agree with your
interpretation.  I simply wanted to answer the implied question about
the Greek word.  Jesus uses hyperbole in parables on a number of
occasions, e.g. references to a beam in your eye, cutting off your
right hand.  I would assume that's what is going on here.  --clh]

davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) (09/29/89)

In article <Sep.23.04.31.19.1989.17560@athos.rutgers.edu> dg@lakart.uucp (David Goodenough) writes:
regarding the precise meaning of Luke 14:26 which says "If any {man}
come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple.". Our moderator checked out the greek and
disclosed that the english word "hate" is quite accurate.
 
>... I am humbled, surprised, and a little confused.
>Can you provide any insight to try to clear my confusion, 
I do not believe that the word "you" in your question was referring to
me, but I'll try to answer you anyway.
 
Each of us is indeed commanded to honour his father and his mother, to
do unto others (which would include his parents) as he would have them
do unto him (which would include love which is the fulfillment of the
whole law of God anyway), and to love his neighbour (which again would
include his parents) as himself. It is also true that the Scriptures,
which are the perfect Word of God, cannot contain any contradictions.
This means that it is essential that we find harmony between these
Scriptures if we want to be sure that we understand any of them
correctly.
 
The Scripture which clarifies it all for me is Deuteronomy 13:6-11
which says "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy
daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which {is} as thine
own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods,
which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; {Namely}, of the gods
of the people which {are} round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off
from thee, from the {one} end of the earth even unto the {other} end of
the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him;
neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither
shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand
shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of
all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die;
because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And
all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such
wickedness as this is among you.".
 
Our loyalty to even those who are closest to us here on this earth must
NEVER come between ourselves and God. We may never compromise our love
for God in order to either please or satisfy the whims of some person.
The love that any of us has for even his parents, children or spouse,
must pale in comparison to his love for God. With love for God as the
standard, our love even for our most intimate acquaintances must
appear, on the same scale, as though it were no more than hatred. This
does not mean that we don't love those other people; it just means that
our love for God is to be so much more predominant and always must cast
the deciding vote when it comes to a decision where there is a
conflict.
 
    Dave Mielke, 613-726-0014
    856 Grenon Avenue
    Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
    K2B 6G3